Mui Ne-muy bueno

Hello followers,

I am nearing the end of my time in Vietnam. I'm currently in Saigon, leaving for a biking trip of the Mekong Delta tomorrow morning and then into Cambodia from there. Vietnam is an interesting mix of extreme development (especially when you consider this country was at war about 40 years ago) together with strong spirit that clearly has fought through challenges. I had a pretty hard time in the North and now I'm realizing that's because they don't really like foreigners that much in the north. After having spent a few weeks in the south, I now see that the whole country isn't that pushy. Saigon is actually a more chill city than Hanoi. Everyone warned me it would be crazier, but I don't think anything will compare with the oppressive heat and humidity coupled with the claustrophobia of Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh is like the more organized and fun younger brother of Hanoi. Anyway, I'm not sure if it is because I've had four glorious days in a beach to recharge, but I'm loving Saigon. They have baricades in the middle of the street so motobikes can't go the wrong way. There are stop lights. The stores can fit more than two peole in them. No one is really hawking much on the street. And best of all, there is amazing street food so cheap! I'm in heaven, I see why so many ex-pats choose this city--I've met quite a few.

Working backwards, I've managed to see many of the sights that I wanted to while in Saigon. I didn't get it together last night to sign up for a Cu Chi tunnels tour so I ended up taking a moto out there. It was an hour and a half away, boy was my patuti (sp?) sore. But, I had a great time. I've finally learned to relax and stop looking at the traffic that it seems like we're going to hit. Instead I look around and you are really out there experiencing more. So that was fun. Sadly, the tour guide that they give you out there is extremely bored with his job, so although I saw the tunnels, that's about all I can say about them. Basically, around 2000 vietnamese lived in these tunnels for years during the war, hiding from americans. In fact, in some places the tunnels were right under where the americans had bases set up and they never knew. They have doubled the size of them for tourists, and boy were they small today, so I can only imagine what they were like back then. The tunnels were complete with hidden doors, booby traps, etc. They were pretty ingenious though, their kitchens were smoke-free, sending the smoke out about 10 feet away in small bits and they only used the stove in the morning so it would look like fog. The whole thing was kind of a testament to the human spirit and perils of war.

Then, I hit up the war remnants museum. Also pretty intense and doesn't make you too proud to be an american. Tons of photos of disfigured children from either landmines or Agent orange. Clearly, the museum curators are still pretty angry with americans and the writing shows that. I learned a good amount about how the ward began and ended and really how terrible the American soldiers were to civilians of vietnam. Anyway, after about an hour I'd had enough and made my way back to my tourist enclave over here.

Prior to Saigon, I spent four days in Mui Ne, a small beach town that is quickly changing with the onslaught of large resorts. However, Mui Ne is still quite charming and the tour that we did there was one of my favorite of my whole trip. It began at 7 am with a trip to the fishing village (to get a real sense of it check out my photos at picasa). I'm pretty sure this morning routine has not changed for centuries. Hundreds of people--bringing in fish from the boats, loading up motos and bicycles, buying, selling, sorting, deshelling--basically if there is anything to do with getting fish from the ocean to the rest of the town/city/country, it is happening. Not surprisingly, this town makes a ton of fish sauce, so there is kind of that smell throughout the non-touristy areas. For awhile I was trying to place the scent and then when a local (well, local ex-pat) told me about it, the whole thing made sense (no pun intended). I couldn't figure out what they were doing with so many little fish.

From the fishing village it was on to the white sand dunes. No, this isn't the Sahara desert, but it was pretty beautiful. A local kid comes up to the dunes with you and rents you a "sandboard"--think cheap sled, somewhere around the quality of sliding down Foss hill on a Mocon cafeteria tray. But the kid packs it with sand for you and you can slide down as many times in as many ways as you want. The best was on my stomach. None were quite that fast, but it was still fun. It is a bit of trek to get back up the dune, I felt like I was getting a real workout. Don't laugh, that passes for exercise these days. Sadly, Ryan has those photos and claimed he gave them to me, but I don't have them on my card. I'll have to work on getting a link for those.

Next up we went to see the red sand dunes, smaller dunes that we chose not to slide down bc well, it wasn't that incredible on the white ones and these were even smaller. But we hiked up and you can get a view of the South China Sea, which was pretty nice.

Finally, we went to the Fairy Stream--a river that is only abourt 2 in deep because the sand from the walls slides into it. There's white sand at the bottom and red sand on top. I don't really know the geological history of it, but it was really amazing to see. You take off your shoes and just walk along this as far as you want. A natural wonder, really.

So that was our tour day. The rest of the time I mostly hung out on the beach. The crazy thing about the beach was that the sea was completely different every day. When we first got there the waves were crazy from the Typhoon--it didn't hit there but at another part of the sea. The next few days were nice sized waves. One day it was filled with garbage and plastic bags. My last day it was pristine and extremely calm. So I spent my days squating on the chairs from a resort under the shade structure reading The Alchemist. I had one random day where this Caribbean ex-pat brought me into the big town on his moto and showed me around. That was pretty fun.

My nights were mostly spent at this new bar called Sankara-a $2.5million establishment complete with a swimming pool, two beautful bars and of course, it is right on the ocean. We met the chef, bar manager, and a few others. Since it is low season, most of the people hanging out at the bar are ex-pats--this is a big kite surfing spot in high season, so think surfer type with a more extreme twist. Anyway, the nights were a bit debaucherous and it was just across the street from our guest house so that was convenient.

I can't quite convey why I had such a good time in Mui Ne. It was really chill, I had lots of time to read, I always had people to hang out with and well, I guess I just needed a break from the budget traveler scene.

I had one totally silly night. I come back to my room from a bizarre day of exploring Phan Thiet and playing guitar hero with some Americans. Something catches my eye in the corner of my room. It is the biggest spider I've ever seen in my life. The legs are huge and fat. I don't know what to do. After ten minutes of trying to catch it in a plastic bag, I finally run out to get one of the girls who work there to help me. This drunk French/swiss guy says, I will help you. So he runs back to my room with me (it is raining cats and dogs mind you) and with one wack kills it with a plastic bag. Howẻver, no damsel in distress gets away that easily. He decides he's now found a freind and begins to tell me that I should not be scared of spiders in Vietnam. Yes, in Arizon they are much bigger, but Vietnam now. He punctuates every sentence by puckering his lips, mnaking a bizaree frowny face with his eyebrows and pointing a finger into the air. So, I thank him for his help and hope he'll go away. He continues to talk for a while, repeating his same sentences. Finally, he gets the message and goes back to the bar/restaurant area of the hotel. Well, at this point I don't know where any of my crew is, so I just decidẻ to eat at the guest house. Boy was that a mistake. Mister spider saver guy decides he needs to sit with me, even though I'm clearly trying to read my book. He will not leave me alone, keeps invading my personal space by poking me in the arm. Asks me dumb questions like, do you like salty or sweet better? What is your favorite country? Blah blah. On and on. I was losing my mind. Finally I remember that I have Ryan's cell phone number and ask one of the hotel girls if I can use her phone. I manage to contact them through text message, find out where they are and phewsh, I'm outta there. I race through knee high water that has flooded the street to meet up with them.

The strangeness continues as we try to go to Karaoke with some other travelers. There are four women and Ryan, the same guy from the last post. We ask the taxi to take us to karaoke, and pantomime singing. He says yes, I know. Takes us to this place down the road. We look over, it is a long dark alley with no sign. We send Ryan as a scout. Apparently, it is a dodgy looking spot with about 4 beds and two burnt looking guys. The driver came out and followed Ryan and he's like, no no no. We're looking for karaoke, where you sing...Karaoke can have a number of meanings in Asia. But what did the driver think with four foreigner women in the car. We wanted to be the prostitutes? I guess there was possibly another spot in the next town over, phan tiet, but considering no one spoke vietnamese in the car, we decided to call it a night with the karaoke and just go to a regular bar. Ended up back at Sankara where the owner went nutty and started spraying everyone with alcohol and smashing the bottles into the sink. She's a bit ofa crazy, I think. The gay waiter started dancing on the bar and the insanity just continued from there. I just watched most of it, but I did have to endure alcohol in my eye which stings like crazy. Here's a photo of the bathroom, if it wasn't a five it was pretty darn close!

Well, this post is extremely long, so I think I need to sign off. I'm sure I'll have lots more after my 3-day bike trip in the delta with two 65 year old Dutch women. I'm hoping it is a good time.

Amazingly, I'm over half-way through my trip already. It is really flying by.

xoxo

Dina